Motorola Executive Topfer to Join Dell as Vice Chairman
Michael Dell, after an amazing decade of taking his personal computer company from a dorm room to the top ranks of the industry, on Monday named a telecommunications executive to help him lead it.
Morton L. Topfer, president of Motorola Inc.’s land mobile products sector, will become vice chairman of Dell Computer Corp. on June 1.
Topfer, 57, will report to Dell, who at 29 is the youngest chief executive of a Fortune 500 company. The two will form the new post of chief executive, to which the rest of the company’s executives will report.
The announcement caps 18 months of senior-level hiring by Dell, starting with Chief Financial Officer Tom Meredith in November, 1992. On several occasions, Dell has expressed the need to surround himself with people experienced in operating multibillion-dollar companies.
“We’re running a $3-billion business. It’s pretty easy to see with me that’s the first time I’ve ever done that,” Dell said in a telephone interview from his Austin, Tex., office.
Analyst Steve Eskenanzi at Alex. Brown & Sons in San Francisco said, “Dell’s continuing to build a management team and infrastructure commensurate with becoming a $5-billion to $10-billion company.”
“This just adds some seasoned management experience from a high-growth business,” said Antoine Tristani, analyst at SouthCoast Capital in Austin. “Dell has made it clear it sees the industry’s future growth is in mobile computing and communications.”
Topfer will end 23 years with Motorola. In addition to leading mobile products, he was a corporate executive vice president.
“I figure that Dell would give me a lot of opportunities and challenges to keep me young,” Topfer said.
Dell “will focus more and continue to drive the vision in computer development and marketing, where his skills are,” Topfer said. “I’ll probably initially focus more on the operations issues, as well as some of the international growth opportunities.”
Dell started the company in a dorm room at the University of Texas and pioneered direct sales as a chief way to sell PCs and retain customers. The company now is the nation’s sixth-largest personal computer maker.
It stumbled last year when it misjudged an advance in the sales of laptop computers and had trouble with costs due to rapid growth.
Dell shares slipped 6.25 cents to $25.81 on Monday on the Nasdaq.
